Quotations and aphorisms by David Johansen:

Until I was six years old we lived in the projects, then my two brothers and three sisters and I moved to a three-bed that my mother's father built.~David Johansen

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You know when you read that someone has to leave a show or a tour because they had 'nervous exhaustion'? Well, I had one of those and discovered that I was quite close to death. I always assumed that my lifestyle was going to take me at an early age, but when it was actually occurring I was, 'Not yet!' I pulled back.~David Johansen

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I still do a lot of shows with Brian Koonin, but we haven't had a full band lately.~David Johansen

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I'm afraid of me.~David Johansen

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In the late '70s, I had a band - the David Johansen band, for lack of a better name - and I started collecting, not records, but tapes from people I knew who had jump-blues records.~David Johansen

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The stuff that I dig, it's usually got a soulful component to it. A singer that I really like. I might not understand the language that they're singing in, but I'm really communing with this person.~David Johansen

You try things on in life. You wear them for a while, and you see what's next.~David Johansen

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I'm doing exactly what I want to do, and I'm having fun doing it.~David Johansen

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I listen to a lot of different kinds of music.~David Johansen

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I've been around the block a couple of times, and the guy I am now is the guy I like to be.~David Johansen

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The first Latin music that blew my mind was bumba, which was a Puerto Rican beat.~David Johansen

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I don't know why I'm alive but I know there's a reason for it.~David Johansen

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I got arrested once on stage in Memphis for looking too much like Liza Minnelli.~David Johansen

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Music is my love and to me acting is more mercenary. I don't pound the pavements for roles: if it happens, it happens. I hate that auditioning thing.~David Johansen

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Everything I've done I've just fallen into.~David Johansen

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I'm compelled to paint nearly every day. I just felt like making a painting, went out and bought paints and a canvas. Now it fulfills me creatively when I'm not doing music: it's something you can do by yourself and it's totally yours. It's a great adjunct to my life.~David Johansen

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I don't really like to sit around the house listening to my own records. They're not that good.~David Johansen

I'm not impersonating anybody. I'm perfectly satisfied with what I am.~David Johansen

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It's really a drag to do the same project over and over again.~David Johansen

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You know, when you're making a record, you come up with 15, 20 songs. Then they start to fall by the wayside as your interest wanes. It's kind of like a process of elimination to determine which songs wind up on the record.~David Johansen

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When you're a kid, you have this feeling like you're indestructible. Your mortality doesn't even occur to you. But as time goes by, you realize, 'I better cut this out or that out if I want to continue to exist.'~David Johansen

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As I recall, my life as a child was so all-consuming that I barely had time to consider the future.~David Johansen

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I've been tired since I was 15.~David Johansen

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Sometimes when I hear my voice on tape, I'm like, 'Who is that horrible man?'~David Johansen

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Sometimes I've found that by getting into a certain drag, or a certain feeling, you can cast off your mortal coil and really do something. I don't know if it's important, but it's something. It's entertainment.~David Johansen

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I think we as a band, as individuals, understand that all popular music stems from blues and jazz and even pop, but rock 'n' roll especially comes from blues.~David Johansen

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Most bands are commercial enterprises. But I'm not in one of those bands.~David Johansen

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I mean, if you asked me what I'm going to be doing when I'm 85, I'd make a quick picture in my mind and, well, I'll be singing.~David Johansen